Trio in line to direct ‘Tickets’ together

Project reps a rare collaboration among vet helmers

ROME — Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami and Ken Loach have teamed up to helm “Tickets,” a film set on a train traveling from Northern Europe toward Rome.

Project reps a rare collaboration among veteran helmers on a pic with a unified non-episodic narrative.

The heavyweight auteurs will each shoot one part, but “Tickets” will have the same main characters throughout. The three helmers penned the screenplay, albeit with each working on a section individually.

“This is a project truly based on the three directors’ wish to work together,” producer Domenico Procacci, topper of Rome indie Fandango, told Daily Variety. “The train will give it a unity of place and time,” he added.

The roughly E4 million ($4.9 million) “Tickets” is the first title Procacci is — at least in part — channeling through Film Consortium, the U.K. outfit in whose parent company, Civilian Content, Fandango recently acquired a controlling interest.